Archibald MacLeish Poems

Archibald MacLeishArchibald MacLeishArchibald MacLeish (May 7, 1892ľApril 20, 1982) was an
American poet, writer and the Librarian of Congress. He is associated with the
modernist school of poetry. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize three times.
MacLeish was born in Glencoe, Illinois. His father, Andrew MacLeish, worked as a
dry-goods merchant. His mother, Martha Hillard, was a college professor. He grew
up on an estate bordering Lake Michigan.
He attended the Hotchkiss School from 1907 to 1911, before moving on to Yale
University, where he majored in English and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and
selected for the Skull and Bones society. He then enrolled in the Harvard Law
School. In 1916, he married Ada Hitchcock.
His studies were interrupted by World War I, in which he served first as an
ambulance driver and later as a captain of artillery. He graduated from the law
school in 1919. He taught law for a semester for the government department at
Harvard, then worked briefly as an editor for The New Republic. He next spent
three years practicing law.
In 1923 MacLeish left his law firm and moved with his wife to Paris, where they
joined the community of literary expatriates that included such members as
Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway. He returned to America in 1928.
From 1930 to 1938 he worked as a writer and editor for Fortune Magazine, during
which he also became increasingly politically active, especially with
anti-fascist causes. He was a great admirer of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who
appointed him Librarian of Congress in 1939. According to MacLeish, Roosevelt
invited him to lunch and "Mr. Roosevelt decided that I wanted to be librarian of
Congress." MacLeish held this job for five years. Though his appointment was
officially opposed by the American Library Association because of his lack of
professional training as a librarian, he is remembered by many as an effective
leader who helped modernize the Library.
During World War II MacLeish also served as director of the War Department's
Office of Facts and Figures and as the assistant director of the Office of War
Information. These jobs were heavily involved with propaganda, which was
well-suited to MacLeish's talents; he had written quite a bit of politically
motivated work in the previous decade.
He spent a year as the Assistant Secretary of State for cultural affairs and a
further year representing the U.S. at the creation of UNESCO. After this, he
retired from public service and returned to academia.
Despite a long history of criticizing Marxism, MacLeish came under fire from
conservative politicians of the 1940s and 1950s, including J. Edgar Hoover and
Joseph McCarthy. Much of this was due to his involvement with anti-fascist
organizations like the League of American Writers, and to his friendship with
prominent left-wing writers.
In 1949 MacLeish became the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at
Harvard. He held this position until his retirement in 1962. In 1959 his play
J.B. won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
From 1963 to 1967 he was the John Woodruff Simpson Lecturer at Amherst College.
Around 1969/70 he met Bob Dylan, who describes this encounter in Chronicles,
Vol. 1.